Israel

These photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv may be the capital of the world's only Jewish state, but it's about as secular as anywhere I've ever been. A modern city, it has a growing collection of skyscrapers, swanky hotels line the beach and at times it almost feels like you could be at any beach resort. There's certainly an eastern feel though, which you see, feel and taste in the markets and restaurants.

Along the sea front	Looking towards Jaffa	Looking towards Jaffa
Hotel	A modern sculpture	Along the sea front
Along the sea front	Along the sea front	Along the sea front
The main market	A new building towers above an older one	Jewish shop
Fountain by the sea	Fountain by the sea	Watching the sunset
Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset
Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset
Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset
Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset
Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset	Watching the sunset
The market	The market	The Tel Aviv port
The Tel Aviv port	Looking towards the power station	Down by the river
Down by the river	Down by the river	Down by the river
At the Eretz museum	At the Eretz museum	At the Eretz museum
At the Eretz museum	At the Eretz museum	At the Eretz museum
At the Eretz museum	At the Eretz museum	At the Eretz museum

Jaffa (Joppa)

Jaffa (often written as Joppa in the bible) could in a way be seen as the old city of Tel Aviv, but that's not really the case: the modern Tel Aviv grew into Jaffa as it expanded. Jaffa is a historical place, mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments in the bible: it's mentioned in the Jonah and the Whale story, and Peter did a miracle there. I cycled there from central Tel Aviv, along the coast, and happily whiled away some hours soaking up the history.

The Jaffa Port	A mosque	Mosque minaret
Mosque minaret	Mosque minaret and the sea	Looking to Tel Aviv
The Clock Tower	The Clock Tower	The Clock Tower
Shops in old buildings	A mosque	A mosque
A mosque	A mosque	A mosque
Canon	Modern sculpture	The main church of Jaffa
Looking down on the port	A church tower	A castle, I think
A castle, I think	Franciscan church	Outside the Franciscan church
Franciscan church	Franciscan church	Franciscan church
Franciscan church	Jaffa buildings	Jaffa buildings
Jaffa buildings	The wishing bridge	Jaffa buildings
Looking towards Tel Aviv	Looking towards Tel Aviv	Looking towards Tel Aviv
Arch on the Tel Aviv viewing area

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

I took the train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The second part of the journey goes through some fairly nice scenery, though it was hard to take pictures through the filthy windows!

Jerusalem

A holy city to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem's old city is packed with history of all three of them. It really is amazing to stand where historical events took place, and see places mentioned in the scriptures first hand. In a place like this, you really have to experience it yourself to know what it's like. However, hopefully these photos give something on an impression.

St David's Tower	St David's Tower	In the Armenian Quarter
In the Armenian Quarter	In the Armenian Quarter	In the Armenian Quarter
Looking over the city wall	Looking over the city wall	Looking over the city wall
Looking over the city wall	Tunnel by the Western Wall	Tunnel by the Western Wall
The Western Wall	Looking out of the old city	Mosque with dome and minaret
Looking towards the Dome of the Rock	Looking towards the Dome of the Rock	Looking towards the Dome of the Rock
Looking towards the Dome of the Rock	Looking towards the Dome of the Rock	A mosque with dome and minaret
Looking at the sunset through a window	Looking at the sunset through a window	A couple of kids that wanted to show me their roof
Ancient columns	View from my hostel by night	View from my hostel by day
View from my hostel by day	View from my hostel by day	Looking towards the Redeemer church
In the Armenian museum	In the Armenian museum	In the Armenian museum
Ruins	Mosque entrance	The Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock	The Dome of the Rock	The Dome of the Rock
Temple	The Dome of the Rock	One of the stations of the cross
One of the stations of the cross	Street where Jesus walked on his way to the cross	Looking towards the Holy Church
Tower of the Redeemer church	Market	The Redeemer church
View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower
View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower
View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower
View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower
View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower
View from Redeemer Church tower	View from Redeemer Church tower	Franciscan Church
Franciscan Church	Franciscan Church	Franciscan Church
Franciscan Church	Me with holy water	Sacred room, I forget exactly what for...
...but my hair had to be covered for me to go in there!

Sunset at Mitzpe Ramon

I arrived at Mitzpe Ramon after several hours journey by train and then, after a good hour's wait, by bus. After dropping my stuff at the hostel, there was time to go the rim of the crater and walk alongside it, enjoying the sunset. Here's some photos I took.

A walk in the Ramon crater

I had a full day to spend at the Ramon crater, and rather than gaping down into it from the edge decided to get down there and see it up close. With a hiking map, some sturdy shoes, water and snacks, I trekked for four hours, down into the crater, across its floor and then up and out of it again. When the sun came out, it was hot. When it went behind clouds and the wind blew, I was glad for the cover at the first, and then slipped on jacket on again - only to find myself hastily taking it off again when the sun re-appeared! The first couple of hours were spent on a trail that was marked well most of the way, though I did feel quite lost at a couple of points and knew that if I got truly lost the desert conditions wouldn't be kind to me. Thankfully, I lived to tell the tale.

The crater rim, before descent	View on the way down	View on the way down
View on the way down	View on the way down	View on the way down
View on the way down	View on the way down	View on the way down
View on the way down	View on the way down	View on the way down
View on the way down	Down in the crater	Down in the crater
Down in the crater	Miles of nothing	More miles of nothing
Different colors of rock	Rock and plant life	Rock and plant life
Rock and plant life	A curious geological structure	Looking towards black hills
The black hills	The sun lights up some red-ish rocks	The sun lights up some red-ish rocks
The sun lights up some red-ish rocks	The sun lights up some red-ish rocks	The sun lights up some red-ish rocks
Approaching The Carpentry Shop	The Carpentry shop	The Carpentry shop
The Carpentry shop	The Carpentry shop	The Carpentry shop
The Carpentry shop	The Carpentry shop	Along the road through the crater
Along the road through the crater	Along the road through the crater	Along the road through the crater
Along the road through the crater	Along the road through the crater	Looking towards the crater walls
Along the road through the crater	Along the road through the crater	Along the road through the crater
Power line down into the crater	The road up and out	Curious rock engravings
Looking back down, on the way out	Looking back down, on the way out	The road out of the crater
Nearly out of the crater	And I'm out!	Last look down into the crater